The talk of the town right now is MIT’s report regarding #Gen #AI pilot failures. And what’s interesting is that more searches than ever contain “custom AI.” Companies want AI, but off-the-shelf, plug and play solutions might not be cutting it. There are a tremendous amount of takeaways from the report, but what I believe is the most impactful is this excerpt: “More than half of generative AI budgets are devoted to sales and marketing tools, yet MIT found the biggest ROI in back-office automation—eliminating business process outsourcing, cutting external agency costs, and streamlining operations.” So many people and companies are quick to say that AI will dissolve sales jobs, completely eliminate marketing, and make other organizations within companies obsolete. But that’s not what this report is showing. The lesson here ties directly to #customAI. Organizations asking how they can add AI into their processes might be missing the more important ask: where can AI create additional productivity for employees in ways off-the-shelf tools cannot. “AI won’t replace humans, it will replace humans that don’t use AI.” (Not sure the original source, but I’ve seen it many times.) I completely agree. The question becomes: where can companies create additional business value, reduce burnout, increase employee productivity, and turn their salesforce into a true machine by deploying AI that is purpose built for their actual workflows? Happy Friday and enjoy the holiday weekend! 🔥 Report in comments.
Post-ChatGPT-5, the market is getting pragmatic. #AGI may take longer than headlines suggest, but "custom AI" is exploding. Google Trends just hit a new high for “custom ai”—a sign that teams want secure, domain-specific systems that move KPIs. #CustomAI #EnterpriseAI #AIEngineering #DataSecurity #BuildVsBuy
Nate, Chamath Palihapitiya mentioned the exact same quote recently on the All-In Podcast: “More than half of generative AI budgets are devoted to sales and marketing tools, yet MIT found the biggest ROI in back-office automation—eliminating business process outsourcing, cutting external agency costs, and streamlining operations.”
Custom solutions for AI/ML limitations
4whttps://fortune.com/2025/08/18/mit-report-95-percent-generative-ai-pilots-at-companies-failing-cfo/